The crossroads of Torkham’s border reopened on Wednesday after 27 days after the long -awaited Parleyys among Jirga members of Pakistan and Afghanistan, according to a Jirga leader on the Pakistani side.
The cross -border movement of people through the border crossing of Torkham was suspended abruptly on February 21 after the Pakistani and Afghan security forces developed differences on construction activities on both sides of the border.
The situation worsened this month when eight people, including six troops, were injured when Pakistan and Afghan Taliban forces changed fire on the border.
Several houses, a mosque and some offices of compensation agents were run over by artillery shells, and the cross -border shot continued for three days. Since then, tribal elders on both sides of the border have been involved in conversations to end the dead point.
Around 5,000 commercial trucks had been trapped on both sides, causing millions of dollars in losses for merchants on both sides, according to the vice president of the Chamber of Commerce and Joint Industry of PAK-FGHAN, ZIAUL HAQ HAQ SARHADI.
The decision to reopen the border was taken at a flag meeting in Torkham on the Afghan side on Wednesday, said the chief of the paquistani jirga Jirga Jawad Hussain Kazmi Dawn.com.
Kazmi said that the border has now opened for cargo vehicles and that it will open for pedestrians and patients on Friday after the repair of the damaged paquistani customs infrastructure due to the shooting from the Afghan side.
In addition, immediate fire was agreed until April 15. Both parties agreed to stop the construction of the controversial control posts, Kazmi added.
The vice governor of Nangrahar, Molvi Azizullah, and Commissioner Molvi Hikmatullah represented to the Afghan side at the flag meeting.
“The Pakistani members of Jirga had pressed to stop the controversial constructions on the Afghan side,” Kazmi said.
Afghan state news agency Bakhtar He also confirmed the reopening of the crossing by vehicles and patients. The report says that the pedestrian movement would resume on Friday.
On March 17, a joint jirga composed of the elderly and merchants had negotiated an agreement that included the reopening of the crossing, a high fire and a stop to the construction of control stalls on the Afghan side near the border.
The spokesman of the Pakistan Foreign Ministry, Shafqat Ali Khan, said a weekly press conference on March 13 that the Afghan team had carried out an illegal and unilateral construction activity within the Pakistani territory in two points along the Pakistan border.
For their part, Afghan Taliban officials insisted that they wanted to build control publications on their side.
Afghan Taliban officials had affirmed that Pakistan had been involved in the illegal construction of Torres.
Pakistani officials had clarified to the Afghan side that the towers were being built in the border terminal to facilitate merchants and patients.
Two meetings of Pakistani and Afghan officials and a previous meeting of Jirga had not been able to solve the problem.
